Male Team 12 - 19 Jun
Tour de Suisse
1327 Kilometers 8 Stages
There will be 10-6-4″ up for grabs at the seven road stages, plus 3-2-1″ at the intermediate sprints.
Three overall victories have been obtained by the Eusebio Unzué-led organisation in the Tour de Suisse: one with Vladimir Karpets (2007) and two back-to-back successes with Rui Costa (2012, 2013).
Only one individual time trial – that’s the main change to the 2022 Tour de Suisse, an otherwise classic route, covering the three main communities of the Helvetic Confederation (Romandy, the German-speaking predominant area and the Ticino) and combining big ascents with pesky, short hills.
Küsnacht, just outside Zürich, will be the opening venue on Sunday 12th. The race will be quite hilly in its opening stages -day one will feature a 3km, 7% ascent just four kilometers from the finish; stage two will climb the Challpass (Cat-2; 6km at 6.3%) 13km before the arrival to Aesch (Monday 13th)-, while also offering the sprinters some chances in Grenchen (Tuesday 14th).
Wednesday 15th, the riders will tackle the Steinerbergstrasse KOM (3.6km at 8%) with 15km from the finish in Brünnen (st. 4). On Thursday 16th, a hill-top finish in Novazzano; Friday 17th, two ‘monsters’ will be awaiting with the Nufenenpass (HC) and the Moosalp (HC, finish), and Saturday 18th, the Lukmanierpass (Cat-1) will be crested before the finish in Malbun (HC). This year’s race will actually not end in Switzerland, as a 25km ITT will decide things in Vaduz, the capital city of Liechtenstein, on Sunday 19th.